McCaskill touts spending watchdog role

Thursday

Aug 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill sought to make her case for re-election yesterday with the aid of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb by highlighting their efforts to follow through on a 2006 campaign pledge to root out wasteful spending in wartime contracting.

McCaskill's campaign swing with Webb, a St. Joseph native, marked the Democratic senator's latest initiative in a monthlong effort to build support among military families and rural residents, two traditionally Republican-leaning constituencies in Missouri.

Yesterday, McCaskill sought to remind people that she had proposed as a candidate six years ago to create a commission to look into wasteful military spending — similar to what then-Missouri Sen. Harry Truman had done during World War II. She and Webb subsequently sponsored a measure creating the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The panel released a report last year estimating that as much as $60 billion had been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade because of lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and corruption.

"It's a promise kept," McCaskill said in a conference call with reporters while driving between campaign stops.

"I want to remind Missourians that there have been real instances where I've tackled problems in a bipartisan way and actually accomplished things on their behalf in ways that not only saves taxpayers money but strengthens our military," said McCaskill, who heads a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight.

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